CATSKILL — Greene County Director of Tax Services Ray Ward told lawmakers that just 137 of the 1,254 firefighters on the county tax rolls have taken the emergency workers’ real property tax break approved by the Legislature in February.
As a result of the low response, Greene County residents will see their county property taxes increase by only $3.50, Ward said.
“Originally I told you that there were around 1,200 firefighters on the rolls,” Ward said. “One hundred thirty seven of them — a little over 10 percent — applied for the exemption. The impact was much lower, because I was working with the number of 1,200. I gave you the worst-case scenario of $17 to come in on an average home last year which was valued at $250,000. The impact is about $3.50. If they’re in the village, increase that by $1.50.”
Ward said timing might have been the cause of the smaller-than-expected response.
“We passed our resolution in February,” Ward said. “Towns and school districts and villages were scrambling to have this on the books before March 1. They did, but I also think that maybe the firemen didn’t know enough about it. If you look across the statistics for the towns, you see which towns had more.”
Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said firefighters might have found that New York State’s offering of a volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers’ credit of $200 had a higher return than the real property tax exemption granted by the local governments.
“Right now there’s an alternative benefit,” Groden said. “At the time we passed our resolution you could only pick one or the other. The income tax rebate was mathematically more beneficial to the firefighter. Now I understand there may be an ability for them to seek both. I don’t know if it’s been approved yet. For now, it’s a matter of math. If you get a better benefit from the original, it makes no sense to go with the new one.”
On April 3, Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, D-106, introduced a bill that would allow firefighters to receive both credits. The legislation would “repeal the provision of law that volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers who receive a real property tax exemption for service may not receive the income tax credit for such service.”
The Legislature approved the tax exemption for Greene County volunteers at its Feb. 7 meeting as a way to recognize volunteer emergency responders’ willingness to serve and protect their neighbors without compensation. The law allowed exemption “to the extent of 10% of the assessed value of property for county purposes, exclusive of special assessments.”
Ward said many municipalities, school districts and fire districts followed suit.
“Of the ten of the 14 Greene County towns, five of the school districts, three of the five villages and seven of the 26 fire districts have adopted the new RPTL 466-a Volunteer Firefighters and Volunteer Ambulance Workers Exemption. With a tight time frame to get this accomplished in time for the March 1 Taxable Status Date, it was good news that our encouragement to them appears to have worked,” Ward said.